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Book Notes

others began a program of restoration and today Mission San Fernando isalmost completely restored.This otherwise fine work is marred by the publisher's error in giving ittwo titles. The title on the cover is San Fernando Mission, while the titlepage shows Mission San Fernando.Texas A.&M. University GARLAND E. BAYLISSTexas Camel Tales. By Chris Emmett. (Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company,1969. Pp. xx+234. Illustrations, notes, index. $7.95.)Chris Emmett, whose later biography of Shanghai Pierce won the $1,000oooRoberts award, first became known for his interesting Texas Camel Tales,published in San Antonio in 1932. Long an out-of-print collector's item,this book is now out in an attractive new format, with added illustrationsand the omission of extraneous material. It relates many anecdotes ofJefferson Davis' experiment with camel transportation, which began withthe landing of the first shipload of camels in Texas in 1856.The book recalls the colorful era in which camels commonly were seenin San Antonio streets and in which the wives of cavalry officers at CampVerde sometimes rode camels to church services at Camp Ives, four milesaway. The volume tells of test trips in which camels out-performed mules,and it records the crumbling of the experiment with the neglect of thecamels by Confederate forces which captured them. The building of west-ern railroads, of course, kept the camel herd from being revived; but itsstory, told engagingly by Emmett, makes a fascinating chapter in Texashistory.Dallas, Texas WAYNE GARDA Texan in Search of a Fight. By John C. West. (Waco: Texian Press, 1969.Introduction by Harold B. Simpson. Pp. 189. $6.50)First published in 1901, this book consists of a combination of letters,diary entries, and assorted documents woven together into a single accountof a soldier at war, 1863-1864. The brief introduction to this edition sum-marizes well the preface and explanatory statement contained in the orig-inal but adds little new information.John C. West, a resident of early Waco, provides an account which,though interesting to read from first to last, is best as he relates his par-ticipation in the Gettysburg and Chickamauga campaigns. Otherwise thebooks is simply a brief look at the camp life of a Confederate soldier andan intriguing view of the war-torn South as he travelled to and from thefront.The value of this reprint would have been much greater had someoneprovided an index and annotations.